Groves Murder Trial Jury Set; Trial begins Monday

By Scott Johnson

LOCK HAVEN – A jury has been empaneled in a nearly 30-year-old murder case with the trial to begin Monday morning, Nov. 19.

“The trial will start at 9 a.m. Monday,” said Court Administrator Don Powers Wednesday evening after eight more jurors, four regular jurors and four alternates were seated in the Clinton County murder trial of Loyd Waitman Groves, 69, charged in the 1991 killing of Katherine “Kathy” Dolan Heckel.

The selection went well past 5 p.m., and calls were made to those who were scheduled for Thursday morning, Powers said.

The administrator said he could not provide the gender of the jury until Thursday morning.
Powers said, “of course” Groves was there during the selection process, which was conducted by Daniel Dye, Senior Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth and David Lindsay and George Lepley for the defense.

Groves has been incarcerated at the Clinton County Correctional Facility since January of 2015, the time of his arrest in western Pennsylvania where he had moved after the Heckel disappearance. His apprehension followed a statewide investigating grand jury report based on a renewed probe into the victim’s disappearance from work at the papermill in Lock Haven in the summer of 1991. The arrest came after an investigation into what had been a cold case, the renewed probe conducted by state troopers Curtis Confer and Michael Hutson and FBI special agent Kyle Moore.

The Court told the prospective jurors there will be three days of court next week, Monday through Wednesday, then a break for Thanksgiving and “Black Friday,” the trial resuming Monday, Nov. 26.

The murder trial will be the first in the Clinton County Courthouse since 2004 when Fabian Smart, a Georgia resident who came to Lock Haven University to play football, was convicted in the 1999 beating death of Jason McMann. Smart remains in prison at this time.